THE HOOK
Nous Research just turned a tinkerers' favourite into a $90 million enterprise pitch.
THE GIST
Nous Research raised $90 million from Nvidia, Microsoft's M12, Samsung, Union Square Ventures, Y Combinator and others. The money funds Hermes for Businesses, a privately hosted take on its MIT-licensed Hermes Agent, which Nous says has been cloned more than 24 million times.
THE TAKE
Self-hosted open agents are exactly what nervous IT departments want right now. The catch is that an MIT licence makes the code free, so Nous has to sell support, polish and peace of mind instead. That's a real business. It's also a crowded one.
OPINION
The Hermes Agent repo is the real product here, and its pitch of memory, reusable skills and pick-your-own-model lines up neatly with what enterprises keep asking for. The claim that Hermes accounts for about 2.5% of global token usage is Nous's own internal estimate, so treat it as marketing until someone independent does the counting.
- Story type: Important story
- Impact: Medium
- Confidence: Medium (multiple reports)
- Audience: Business
- What changed: Nous Research raised $90 million to launch an enterprise version of its open-source Hermes Agent.
- What to watch: Pricing and first named customers for Hermes for Businesses, and whether the open-source project keeps pace once paying clients arrive.
- Reading time: 1 minute
